Dr. Mark Epstein, MD

His books are a real public service and I learn something new every time. In Psychotherapy Without the Self, he makes the excellent point about opening up a new avenue for working through difficult emotions by shifting attention from the feeling to identification with the feeling. This technique could be significantly extended to something I call “targeted insight,” analogous to a psychological dexterity on par with a musician practicing to perfect a score or an athlete developing muscle memory. Dr. Epstein is also brave. On page 121 of Going on Being, he points out the high “failure rate” for psychoanalysis. I’ll wager the failure rate for CBT and the more focused therapies like Interpersonal is far, far lower.